Imbroglio
by ataleoncetold
Summary: Im-broal'yo meaning:An intricate, confusing or disturbing situation. Now Hirako just needed to find a means to survive the reverberations. Follow the Vaizards in their journey for the last 100 something years. HirakoxOC UraharaxYoruichi & UkitakexKyouraku
1. Exodus

**Imbroglio**

**By: ataleoncetold**

**Summary:**_im-broal'yo_ meaning:An intricate, confusing or disturbing situation. Now Hirako just needed to find a means to survive the reverberations. Follow the Vaizards in their journey for the last 100 something years. HirakoxOC. KenseixMashiro. UraharaxYoruichi. Hinted KyourakuxUkitake.

**Disclaimer: **I will state this once, and once only; since I seriously doubt that any of you will read Chapter 2 before reading Chapter 1. I am inclined to believe that you will see this disclaimer. Bleach does not belong to me. It belongs to the anime God known as Tite Kubo. Please do not sue, I have no money.

**Author's Note**: Hello everyone! This is my first foray into Bleach fan fiction, and my story is basically about the missing years after the Vaizard's exile from Seireitei. I just wanted to add a quick note that the only real change that is occurring here from canon is that in Turn Back the Pendulum, Kyouraku stated, "...the 10th captain met an untimely demise..."; my story is alternate in that this 10th captain is actually perfectly safe, and I'm going to smile and pretend that Kyouraku never said that, as you'll figure out when you continue reading. Lastly, a big huge thank you to my Beta Pyrite, you are so awesome- thank you!

**Chapter 1: Exodus**

_**Ek-suh-duhs**_: A journey by a group to escape from a hostile environment.

Urahara Kisuke was, as most people knew, a genius. He knew that unthinkable things could happen and he knew that he needed backup in case something awful did happen. God forbid that Urahara Kisuke would ever be caught at the worst possible time, with no plan whatsoever. So he planned, made backups and emergency rations, and safe houses.

This was why when Yoruichi snapped at him, and told him that Shinigami were closing in on Sokyoku Hill Training Ground; his first thoughts were of Karakura and a certain good friend of his who had taken up residence there at the moment. Isshin had resigned from his Captain position, and then asked for a smaller position in the real world. If it weren't for the fact that he never did his paperwork and gave his lieutenant lots of trouble all the time, Yamamoto would never have allowed it.

Besides, the Kurosaki brat was unbelievable annoying, he took a lot of headaches from Yamamoto when he left. It seemed the 10th squad had bad luck with its Captains.

It took him all of two days to transfer all the former captains and lieutenants into faux bodies. Rose was the first to wake up, and that was when he realized that they were still in their hollow forms, and that it wasn't just going to wear out. So he sedated them all and began his research for a method to reverse this.

* * *

Isshin was an idiot, but he was a well meaning idiot so when he asked if Kisuke-kun needed any help, Urahara just smiled and told him to keep watching them all for any change whatsoever. Tessai was just as bad, so he was told to help Yoruichi set up headquarters and turn the safe house into a miscellaneous store: Urahara Shoten. As long as they stayed out of his hair, he was happy. So he worked, periodically checking up on his patients to make sure they weren't faring too badly.

Four hours later (if you don't count the eight he spent chasing away Tessai and Isshin); he had a rather good idea of what to do. It seemed that the easiest method of control would be to 'beat' the hollowfication inside them. But this meant that there was some sort of other part to the...

They really need a name, Urahara mused. When Hollows reached their highest form, they became Arrancars, or so he read; which was, to put basically: a Hollow who pulled their mask off and became a Shinigami. Arrancar. He supposed his comrades were the antithesis of an Arrancar; the question now was - what exactly where they? He opened the last book of runes that he was reading and scanned through it, trying to find out what they were called. This was getting annoying, they weren't his patients, or victims, and they clearly weren't Shinigami anymore. Urahara sighed, he needed brain food.

He walked into the front area of his safe house and froze. "Tessai-san, I said miscellaneous store not candy store!"

"Kisuke-kun! We know, but I thought it would be interesting to brighten up the day of many beautiful children running around and playing in the streets of Karak-"

"Weren't you supposed to be watching our friends?" Urahara interrupted his strange friend.

"Well yes, but this is so much more fun-helpful! I meant helpful!" Was the reply he received. "Try this candy Kisuke, it's really good! Seireitei never has anything like this..."

"You need to go back, someone needs to be checking up on the..." He paused to catch a small packet of candy thrown at him, "Vaizards" He read the label. "Checking up on the Vaizards..." Okay, that worked.

He left the two alone, knowing it was safer to not know what they were doing, and went to the back of the shop. He decided to wake up Hirako; when it came to the nine Vaizards, Hirako would probably have the most self control being so much older that even Hachi or Shizuka.

"The fuck are you doing in my compound? Didn't Aizen tell you that I don't let anybody in until I've had my morning beauty regime?" Urahara hadn't expected him to suffer from a memory lapse. And what the heck was this morning beauty regime? Did he want to know was probably a better question.  
"Hirako-san-"

He was cut off by the egotistical blonde, "This ain't my compound." Then, it seemed his memory decided to come back to him. His eyes widened and the scowl deepened on his face. "Fucking bastard..."

"Well, then," Urahara didn't really know what to do with his fellow former Captain, but he didn't need to do anything because he noticed the straps binding him to the bed.

"Urahara! Why the hell am I tied up! Let me out I swear I'm going to rip ya head off ya shoulder!" Because that was really going to convince him to remove them. That's when the transformation began to take place, the mask slowly forming from the crown of his face and working downwards.

Urahara was quick to action, "Hirako-san, I need you to calm down or you'll turn into your hollowed form again." Thankfully he listened. Urahara knew there was a reason he chose to start with Hirako...

"Aizen has conducted a hollowfication experiment on you and it's clearly worked. Now I've woken you up but I don't know for how long you can remain in Shinigami form. I've devised a method that would help you control your hollow, but I don't think I can get rid of it completely. I think you have the best chance for what I want you to try." Before Hirako could even get a word in, he continued on, "We don't have the time for an explanation; I need you to control your hollow so we don't lose control. Once that's done I promise I'll explain everything."

Hirako seemed to be contemplating this for a minute. "Where's everyone else?"

"I've kept them all sedated, because they can't control their hollow at all, while you can. You've had two millennia of managing your reiatsu, and you're controlling the hollow right now, but it's temporary. But you're probably very hungry, I will bring you something to eat and then we can continue discussing this..."

He quickly came back with a few rice dumplings that Isshin had bought for them, since Yoruichi knew shit about cooking and Tessai, well he wasn't about to trust Tessai with what went inside his stomach. His stomach began to rumble as well, so he grabbed one from the paper bag as well, "Itadakimasu."

* * *

So it took Hirako 35 minutes and four seconds to control and defeat his inner hollow. This was quite a feat since Urahara had no idea how to go about doing this, other than physically fighting Hirako. Hirako had always been strong, but now he was strong in that insane sort of way which had Urahara tired within the first ten minutes, and then Yoruichi, Isshin and for the last few minutes, Tessai had taken turns. Finally, the transformation seemed to disappear and he returned to his normal self. Extremely glad that his method worked, the four of them headed to the kitchen to grab some dinner, and have a rather long, and hopefully not useless, discussion about the future.

"How are the others doing? And what exactly happened?" Urahara knew that the only reason this question hadn't come up earlier was because Hirako didn't want to unknowingly lose control and become a hollow. And he hoped, it was also because Hirako trusted him with the lives of his comrades.

"Still Sedated. After all of you lost consciousness. I moved you all to my lab, but I was summoned to the court and the Central 46 decided to eliminate all of you. Yoruichi intervened and got me and Tessai out, we took you from the Sokyoku Training Ground and brought you here, a safe house I built in case something ever happened."

"The real world?"

"Yes. I've been working on something called a faux body to make us visible in the real world and appear as humans. That's what you're inside right now and you can't really tell the difference but all it does is make you visible to the real world. The others are also in faux bodies right now."

"Wouldn't Seireitei recognize our reiatsu though?" Hirako enquired, slightly impressed by Urahara's work. Not that he'd ever say it out loud or something.

"Nope." The blonde scientists smiled oh so innocently, "They're reiatsu blockers, so you can't sense them, unless you're in a faux body yourself"  
Hirako smiled his trademark smile. This kid, it was good to have him on their side. He was a genius. And Hirako was thoroughly impressed. They were coming to the end of dinner and it was almost 8 pm. "Alright then, take me to see the others, I need to see how they're doing. Exactly who do we have anyways?"

Urahara sucked in his breath; talking to Hirako about Shizuka was going to pose quite a large problem. "You see, we had a bit of an issue. We have Muguruma Kensei, Mashiro, Hachi, Rose, Love, Lisa, Hiyori," Hirako's face pale considerably at the mention of the blonde atom bomb, "And Kyouraku Shizuka."

"Shizuka? What about her? Did she try to find us or something?" Hirako paled, "Did she find us?"

Fuck. How was he supposed to tell Hirako that she had been infected?

"Hirako-san" Yoruichi decided to take over the responsibility of telling him, which was a great relief to Urahara, who really didn't want to die. He'd survived the Central 46's orders of killing the Vaizards, and it would be really embarrassing if he was killed by an over protective Hirako. "I don't know if Yamamoto-Taichou sent her or she came of her own will, but when Tessai moved you to my labs, he sensed her reiatsu flaring and caught her as well. She..." Yoruichi took a deep breath. "She was also subjected to hollowfication. She is with us now."

A melancholy expression graced his already pale face. Jyuushiro was going to have a lot of work to do when Shunsui found out. Poor man. "Take me to them now."

Hirako held her hand as she lay there on the bamboo floor, covered in a white blanket. The former Captain of the 10th Squad finally began to look her two thousand and something years as she fluctuated in and out of moments of sleep. Hirako suddenly felt his age. This couldn't be happening to her. He remembered drinking with Shunsui the night before she was born. Retsu almost killed him when he brought Shunsui, passed out to the medical wing to see Ayumi's daughter. Shunsui was just shy of a hundred when he named Ukitake her godfather. Losing Ayumi was enough for him. Hirako knew that losing the only reminder of the woman whose face he couldn't remember would kill Shunsui. He hoped that as soon as they sorted this out, Yamamoto-taichou would know what was going on and get Aizen.

But he knew better than that, he mused miserably. If Shunsui found them, his poor head was going to bruised black and blue. And his beautiful hair...fuck.

"Okay, they're still sedated. How is Shizuka?" Urahara's voice jolted him out of his thoughts. He'd left him alone with his old friend to check up on the others.

"She's going to be okay." He replied in his arrogant voice. This woman wouldn't, couldn't, die. She was a Shinigami, and she was a Kyouraku for that matter. No matter that everyone else was already stable, accepting the sedative, and healing. No matter that her bleeding wouldn't stop and she was overheating.

He'd visited the others first, and they simply looked like they were sleeping, not like they had a fever and were having terrifying nightmares.

"You should get some sleep, I'll take care of her" The genius kid told him, "you've worked hard today to control your inner hollow."

"What kind of an idiot are you? I'm not leavin' her. Now get me some ice, she's really hot." He snapped.

Urahara rolled his eyes. That's what trying to be nice got you. He quickly left to get an ice pack, hearing a muttered "Some genius he is". He rolled his eyes again and came back, handing it to Hirako.

Hirako Shinji sat himself into sleep with one hand holding Shizuka's hand and the other holding the ice pack.

* * *

Hirako woke up the next day with a swift kick to the head. "Idiot, wake up!!!" Screeched the now –unfortunately- awake Hiyori. If there was a way to get Hirako up and about, it came in the form of a pigtailed and rather annoying blonde ex-lieutenant of the 12th Squad.

"What the hell is your damn problem? Can't you see that Shizuka's sick???"

"What the hell are you talking about faggot?" She grabbed him and threw him out of the doors, breaking the sliding doors in the process.

He looked closely at Hiyori, "Are you alright? Why aren't you sedated?" Hiyori came to Seireitei when she was four, having fallen into the lake near her village. With no one to care for her, he had obviously taken her in. Thus, along with the irritation came the never ending worry. A swift kick to the head proved that she was indeed, alright- so he went back to the usual witty retort. "Shorty what the hell was that for? Do you only use your head to grow hair on? So usele-"

The blow to his stomach really hurt. "I'm useless?? Look at you! Can't even control your own lieutenant! Aizen had you wrapped around his pinkie!"  
Hirako went silent, and Hiyori realized her big mistake. "Shinji I-"

"Forget it" Hirako began to walk towards the kitchen.

"Shinji...!" The uncertainty in her voice was a disheartening surprise. He sighed. Aizen was a bastard, but Hiyori was just a little brat. He held his hand out to her.

"Wanna come find Urahara with me?" They had a lot of work to do, inner hollows to defeat... people to wake up... breakfasts to be eaten...

She ran and wrapped her arms around his right arm. "Let's go"

It turned out that Hiyori had awoken early from the sedative and caused a ruckus. They had to force her to beat her inner hollow. Unfortunately, because of the lack of preparation or simply because of Hiyori's lack of restraint; it took her 69 minutes and four seconds to defeat her inner hollow. However, with the others they were going to go slowly. The last thing they needed was a berserk friend/hollow that they would have to inevitably destroy if they lost control.

As they sat down to eat breakfast (Instant Ramen, since they still hadn't woken someone who could cook without poisoning someone), the group began to discuss who should be woken up first. Hirako thought that Hachi or Shizuka would probably do this very fast because of their calmer character and ability to compose themselves easily.

"Yes, but maybe if we start off with the hardest, it would be better because our energy would be fresh, not tired by the others. Then we won't have as much to worry about with the easier ones." Urahara replied.

Yoruichi frowned. "You know you can't do all six of them in one day, right? It was hard enough to fight the two of you within such a short period of time."

Hirako smirked, "You only had a hard time with the short brat because she's so head stron-"

"Bastard! I'm gonna kill you!" She swiftly tried to kick his head but the foot was grabbed by Hirako and pushed to the ground. "Let me go!"

"Behave at the breakfast table!" Hirako stuck his tongue out. He probably looked so fresh faced and cute when he did that. He smiled, he was so totally the cutest...

"Hey Urahara, are we Shinigami still?"

"Vaizard. You're a Vaizard now", Urahara had the most mischievous look on his face.

Yoruichi's eyebrows disappeared under her purple bangs. "And where did you learn that from?"

Urahara smiled innocently, "A rather sweet and sour friend of mine inspired it."

"You named us? Who the hell do you think you are you stupid asshole! I want to name us! Why don't you take your d-" Hiyori was cut off by Hirako shoving Ramen noodles into her open mouth. She choked and quickly swallowed it all, tears spilling from her eyes.

"Mother fucker!"

Hirako smirked. He always had fun with his brat. "Hurry up, we'll figure out what to do with them soon. It's melting hot in here" he told her as he pulled one of her pigtails. Hiyori glared at him and they continued to eat quickly.

* * *

Soon, they all decided to go sit outside, where the heat of the sun was challenged by a very welcome, cold breeze. They all sat on the front steps of the shop, Urahara bringing paper and a pencil. After much debate and argument, it was decided that two people would be woken every day to complete their transformation, as Urahara called it. Each day, they would pick someone they believed would take to defeating the inner hollow well, and one person who they believed would have some difficulty. On the first day, Hachi and Lisa would be dealt with. Then would come the Kensei balanced by his lazy lieutenant Mashiro. Then lastly, Shizuka, Love and Rose would be dealt on the same day, as all the captains were masters of their reiatsu, as expected and they couldn't imagine having trouble with those three.

They spent the rest of the day setting up shop and taking care of the patients. Around three, right after lunch, Hirako and Hiyori decided to go shopping, since walking around in a kimono, though it was simple, seemed rather strange when people all around wore Western clothing. Thankfully, Yoruichi had thought to convert everyone's savings into Yen and had brought all of it with her. Smart girl. Genius girl. They had so much money, that it wasn't going to be a large problem. Hirako realized that they wouldn't be able to live forever on their savings, so he tried to keep Hiyori from spending too much.

After two hours, and a miserable failure at trying to stop her spending crazily, Hirako sighed and told her he would pay for it; 2000 plus years and lots of free time meant a lot of money got saved up. He smirked as she tried to hide her grateful smile and grabbed his hand as they walked through the stores. That was when she saw it. It was green. It was striped. And it was ugly. "Taichou- I mean, Urahara needs a hat. The idiot's paleness is going to cause him to burn on Earth; what an idiot." She tried to hide her concern with faked frustration and Hirako didn't say a word, but he knew of course and she knew that he knew. And he knew that she knew that he knew. So they bought the damn hat and Hiyori tossed it to him when they came back. Of course he smiled and thanked her profusely for her kindness while she snorted and told him to stick it. Hirako grinned; he was probably going to wear it for the next hundred years.

Hirako went and lay in the grass in the underground training ground. The brat was finally growing up. Falling in love, and all that. He wondered if him, Shizuka and Retsu ever would. Yamamoto's wife Miriko died in the Great War so many years ago, but Yamamoto wasn't going to forget his dear wife. They had four sons, and now their great family was so huge, only Yamamoto knew all of them; and that was a miracle in itself. Kyouraku and Ukitake had each other and he doubted anything wrong could happen after almost 1900 years together. Retsu was always too busy with helping others and that was probably never going to change, and Shizuka? He remembered him and Ukitake chasing away boys, and some girls back when they were younger (making sure Kyouraku never heard, because then they population of Seireitei would decrease substantially), but nowadays, no one tried. I guess they grew tired of hearing, "No, I'm waiting for someone."

"Bastard, you've been out there for how many hours now?" He rolled his eyes as he heard Hiyori's yell. "It's almost eight, come and eat or I'll eat your dinner for you!" He lazily got up. Tomorrow was going to be troublesome. Might as well get some grub and sleep.

"I'm going to eat your fish, butthead!"

**Author's Note**: Alright that's the first chapter of Imbroglio. Leave a comment if you like, or just keep reading. I will be updating every Sunday. I will not update any faster, but I'm going to update on time. Thanks for reading!!


	2. Recumbentibus

**Imbroglio**

**By: ataleoncetold**

**Author's Note: **Welcome to the second chapter of Imbroglio! I have nothing important to say but to thank my beta Pyrite... you rock the universe. And whatever else is there. Just a note that the year is 1899 (110 years ago) in the real world, so Japan has already become partly Westernized. Damn, that's actually a word. Believe me, I spellchecked!

**Thanks to: **Deucesarewild who favourite Imbroglio _and _added it to their story alert! Thank you! Thanks also to cheeky half-demon and .dragon who put Imbroglio on their story alert! I feel so special!

Now I feel like I'm being repetitive but thanks to cheeky half-demon and sublimefantasy for reviewing! I urge you all to review... I _love _reading what you think about my story, and I'll try to answer any questions you have or listen to any problems.

This chapter is about 200 words shorter than my last chapter... but whatever, I liked where it ended- so whatever!

To the story now!

**Chapter 2: Recumbentibus**

_Re-come-bente-bas_: A knockout blow, either verbal or physical.

The next day, Hirako was first to wake up and first to wake the others. He put on a light blue shirt and black slacks, and tied his hair loosely with a strand of hair from the bottom of his head. He had gone into the kitchen to look for something of worth to eat and he'd ended up pushing over a bunch of really large metal pots. Why the hell did they have so many pots and pans when none of them could even cook? He cursed as one fell onto his foot. Faux body or not, pain was pain. His poor beautiful toe was going to be bruised.

"Hirako-san, is everything alright?" Urahara popped into the kitchen and asked.

"No! What the fuck man, I want some food!"

In the end, Hirako started to make breakfast while the others woke up. After a breakfast consisting of slightly burnt eggs, potatoes and over-cooked rice; the team began on their mission for the day. They all hoped that Hachi and Lisa's transformation would go smoother than Hiyori's had. Urahara had been surprised by Hirako, but then again, he was a very strong captain for many centuries, and it should've been expected. Nevertheless, Urahara was glad to have more people taking turns in the fighting, because he wanted to record this to make sure that everything was going as planned.

Around 10 am, Urahara woke up Hachi, who, in his infinite wisdom, understood very quickly what was happening and soon the fight began. Hachi was a strong Shinigami, or he wouldn't be the lieutenant of the Kido Corps. The method that Urahara used involved getting the Vaizard so agitated and tired that his hollow skills would kick in and then he could begin to fight the others. Hachi would be sparring with someone until, and only until, he was able to pull off his mask and become Shinigami again.

"I'll start with you Hachi," Hirako volunteered and then nodded when Urahara told him to switch in ten minutes.

They stood across each other in the training ground and waited as Yoruichi set up the barrier to make sure they wouldn't hurt anyone.

And then the fight began.

Hirako began by attacking Hachi with his zanpakutou, who, though he didn't have the time to unsheathe his sword, used what he was famous for: "Hadō 73: Soren Sokatsui!"(1)  
Hirako dodged using shunpo and then came back by releasing his reiatsu. Urahara and Yoruichi began to pant literally, they were captains, but Hirako rarely released, it was only through excessive promises of not releasing unless there was a great need that Yamamoto choose not to ban his Bankai, as he had done to Kyouraku. The amount of power was unbelievable, but Hachi had experienced this before and was ready for this. Then all of a sudden, Hachi swiftly threw a kick at Hachi, who grabbed his leg and threw him to the ground. Using this to his advantage, Hirako flipped, landing on his feet. But this gave Hachi the time to unsheathe his zanpakutou and they clashed, then flew back by the power overflow. They continued to do this, practically hacking away at each other's zanpakutous. However, Hirako was obviously stronger, and very soon- Hachi began to tire, and the hollow mask began to form.

The sudden increase in his power shocked Hirako, but only for a moment. But that moment was enough for Hachi to grab him by the head and lift him up. By the time Hirako lifted his zanpakutou, he was suddenly hit by a cero. Fuck. He stood up and brushed his hair back from his face with his hands, and realized his face was all bloody. That was going to scar. He realized that he was probably rusty from spending all the time staring at himself and doing paperwork; while letting Aizen do all the field work. When was the last time he went to field anyways? Fuck, indeed. This was Aizen fault. He suddenly felt like sitting on the floor. So he did. Aizen was a genius you had to give him that, the bastard really had Seireitei wrapped tightly around his little finger. He ignored the man in the mask coming closer to him, and looked at his hands. These hands... he realized, these hands caused the fall of so many of the captains and lieutenants of Seireitei. If only he'd paid more attention or tried to be friends with him. Maybe, maybe he could've tried to change Aizen, not just stop whatever sneaky business he was up to. He felt hands wrapping around his torso, crushing the very breath out of him.

Suddenly there was a rush of wind and he felt himself falling to the ground, and Yoruichi right in front of him. He felt the genius kid grab him and pull him out of the barrier. The both of them scrambling as Yoruichi closed the barrier and the aftershock hit them. He was such an idiot, phasing out on them like that. But he realized wryly, it was true. This was his fault. He would willingly let Hiyori beat him up for ruining her like that, and she deserved to.

The Gods, or at least Hiyori must have read his mind or something because as soon as that thought passed through his mind, her closed fist came into sudden contact with the side of his head. "Fuck, Hirako look at your head! What the hell where you thinking?"

He closed his eyes and held onto to his head. "I said I'd let you do this to me. It's all my fault." He mumbled to himself. He was an idiot... and it took him two millennia to realize that truth.

He felt Hiyori move away, and realized that she agreed with him. "I'm sorry." He grabbed her desperately. "I'm so sorr-" This was his kid, his brat. He couldn't have her hating him.

"You're too stupid for me to hate you and it wasn't your fault" Hiyori told him, for once not shouting at the 5th Captain.

Hirako looked up, confused at what she said. Then he realized he was seeing everything in red. There was blood everywhere. Why was there so much blood? He then felt cold hands resting on his face and then pulling him up and pulling his arms over the shoulders. He saw pink hair. Wait no that would be blonde. The genius brat. He felt another body on his right side, but he didn't know who. Urahara told him to open his mouth and he swallowed the pill that Urahara gave him. He was so tired. So damn tired.

"Just close your eyes", The scientist told him. So he did.

* * *

When Hirako finally woke up, he was ready to bash himself on the head with his zanpakutou. What sort of an idiot lost his mind during a battle? He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Damn Aizen and his inborn ability to piss him off.

His thoughts were cut short when he heard, "It wasn't your fault. All of us, that is, except for Kyouraku-san and Rose agree and that's because Kyouraku-san is still asleep and Rose is fighting to beat his hollow right now"

"Hey Lisa-chan!" He smiled his trademark grin at her. How long had he been out?  
Lisa rolled her eyes, "You start with the first love thing again and I'll be calling Hiyori."

Hirako did love her though! Oh well, he tried, she said no. What was a guy to do? Well, he hoped that she could tell him what the hell happened, cause all he could draw was a blank about the fight with Hachi.

Lisa obviously could also read minds, maybe it was a Vaizard thing that he missed out on, because she said, "You've been out three days, you were feverish and kept apologizing to somebody named Ayumi. Urahara said it was shock finally hitting you." She looked out the window. "Kensei just pulled Hiyori out of this room, they're about to wake Kyouraku-san. We just finished Rose and Love." She raised an eyebrow as she watched Hirako's face turn from the smile to a more and more pronounced scowl.

"I miss all the good stuff."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, no one's beat your damn score!" said Kensei as he walked in with a frown on his face. Then he smirked. "Well we still have Kyouraku-san, so why don't you come and watch this last one?"

"Yea, I don't know what you're talking about," replied Hirako. It turned out that everyone else did pretty well on beating their hollows, all between 40-50 minutes. The only one who'd gone over time was Mashiro with 58 minutes and 57 seconds and of course Hiyori had taken the longest, which made sense, being the youngest after all. Hirako smirked. He now had another reason to irritate the hot-headed brat.

"So are you going to just sit there or come and watch Kyouraku-san?" Hirako grimaced. He was so used to Shizuka, that Kyouraku-san made him think of the other Kyouraku-taichou and that brought up too many touchy subjects. He needed a moment or he was going to phase out on them again or something and freak Lisa and Kensei out.

"Hirako, what's wrong with you now?" Too late, but freaked wasn't really the right word for Kensei.

"I'm going to get Uraha-" Lisa started towards the door.

"No no no, I'm fine I tell ya, go on and let me get ready. I'll be right down." Hirako rolled his eyes. Kids these days worried way too much. Kensei snorted and walked out but Lisa watched as he slowly got on his knees and pushed up on his legs. "Fuck." Well that was an epic failure, Hirako thought as his legs gave away and he sat back down.

Lisa rolled her eyes, and then grabbed him by the shoulders and helped him up.

"Are you fucking stupid, let me go. I can do this myself." Hirako may be weak at the moment, but he was no pansy, and he did not, and would not accept help just to walk. He held onto the walls for support as he walked, with Lisa right behind him. The brat wouldn't go, in case he fell or something. Yea, right. She was probably staring at his ass.

Just as he walked into the training ground, he heard two very distinctive voices talking. "I don't think he'll hold for long- the shock is probably more for him that anyone else. He thinks it's his fault".

Before Urahara could reply to his feline friend, Hirako called out, "Are you talking about my amazing body again? Because seriously, I don't do threesomes." It was always nice to know that you could make Lisa's nose bleed faster than anyone else in Seireitei.

Urahara got up and came to him, "Hirako-san! You're awake. Have you eaten anything yet?"  
Urahara suddenly seemed to be smiling at someone behind him and that's when he felt a small hand grab his elbow, then proceed to intertwine their fingers with his, "Shinji"

Shizuka. He turned around quickly; much too quickly because he felt his legs give away. "Fuck," he swore as his knees met an equator with the ground. Shizuka wasn't an idiot like Kensei and Lisa though. Or like Urahara; because as he tried to help Hirako, Shizuka held him back. Hirako pushed himself off of the ground and stood up, facing Shizuka. If he hadn't already beat his hollow, he would have transformed right then and there. "What the hell are you doing here? Who sent you after us?" He snapped at her.

Shizuka bit her lip and embraced him, and pressed her head against his chest. But she didn't answer that question. Hirako swallowed and tried to reign in his anger. How could she keep so calm? How could she be like this when she'd lost it all?

"Shizuka..." If she had been sent by Yamamoto, or because of Shunsui or something... he wouldn't forgive them. But what the hell was he supposed to do with this woman clutching his arm like this? Then again, to the world, Kyouraku Shizuka was just greeting a friend she had known for more than 2000 years.

"Kyouraku-san, let's get started. I'm impressed at your calm, but let's not have any surprises right?" Urahara kept smiling that innocent smile. Shizuka smiled and shifted the weight off Hirako. He was glad for that, because the last thing he needed was to suddenly lose his standing and fall unceremoniously to the ground, especially since the rest of the Vaizards were standing there watching him, including Hiyori.

* * *

The fight started off as normal as any fight. Urahara and Shizuka stood facing each other while the rest of the Vaizards, and Tessai watched. Hachi began to help Yoruichi put up a barrier. That was when Hirako noticed it. Yoruichi was a Shinigami and these skills were second nature to her, having been a taichou; but Hachi was doing it as if he were born to do it. The barriers formed gracefully and quickly and while Yoruichi looked tired from repeating this process for the third time today; Hachi who'd helped before, according to Rose, didn't look even a bit stressed. He caught a smile from Hachi as he realized he'd been staring. Hirako nodded at him in acknowledgment and then began watching the fight.

The fight began as the two drew swords and Urahara attacked head on. Shizuka had a look of mere amusement on her face as she easily dodged and used shunpo to get behind him, but just as she was about to stab him, Urahara flash stepped away. He hadn't become a captain for nothing, you know. Soon, the fight became one so quick that the lieutenants had a hard time following. There was something beautiful, graceful about two captains fighting. The amount of skill and sheer power would have shocked many a Shinigami, but Hirako was used to this, so he grinned with delight and watched on. However strong both captains were, Urahara had one thing working against him, Shizuka's near millennium of being a captain, and her even larger level of experience as a Shinigami. He was to switch as soon as he felt a bit tired since there were so many people there to take turns, so within ten minutes, he switched with Tessai.

Love explained what was happening to him, "Since Kyouraku-san is a taichou, only the other taichou-level Shinigami are able to fight her. Since Yoruichi-san has been working on the barriers all week as well as taking care of us after the fight, she is too tired now to fight her. Rose-san and Love-san have only fought today, and they don't wish to fight unless the situation calls for it. That leaves Tessai and Kensei, as well as Urahara-san. And Hirako-san, you clearly cannot fight"

Fuck that. He was supposed to be the lucky one, why was all this bad luck raining on him like god-given punishment? He sighed and sat down. He knew he couldn't fight today, but hearing it from the youth just pissed him off. So damn it all if he was going to stand and watch the entire battle.

"Oi Shinji, Urahara asked me to bring this to you before. Something about you needed to eat to bring up your energy." Hiyori said to him as she handed him a plate of sushi. She sat a tray of jasmine tea on the floor and poured them into tea cups. She took one and watched him as he ate; his eyes not leaving the fight, even though Hiyori had given up on the fight. Why should she strain her eyes to catch glimpses of a fight? "If you weren't already such a weak bastard, I would beat you up for not thanking me after all the trouble I go through for you."

"Yea thanks." It wasn't enough clearly, to distract him from the fight, so Hiyori huffed and walked off with her tea, mumbling about beating him up as soon as he got better.

Yoruichi came and sat beside him, watching the fight as it went on. Kensei was beginning to look tired and she still hadn't donned her mask; 23 minutes into the fight. "I've been meaning to ask you this, how attached is Shizuka to Seireitei?"

Hirako rolled his eyes. What kind of an idiotic question was that? "She lived there for all her life, which is rather long when you think about it. Her only living relative still lives there and she has quite a lot of responsibility in Seireitei. So what do you think, kid?"

Yoruichi smirked and pulled his hair. "I did this when I was a kid, I guess I can continue to do so then?"

Hirako winced. "Whatever. Why would you ask such a dumb question about Shizuka?" She began to reply, but the two were momentarily distracted by Kensei's tumble to the ground. Yoruichi got up to release the barrier temporarily; but Hirako grabbed her and pushed her back down. "Let Hachi do it, I want to see something."

Yoruichi smiled, "Nothing can hide from you, Taichou. You noticed his skill at barriers as well."

"Of course."

She motioned for Hachi to do it himself and Kensei walked out with a couple of cuts. Tessai entered and Hachi closed the barrier. The first few times that Yoruichi had done this, she'd become very tired, barriers were hard to do by one's self. But Hachi seemed to have no problem with it whatsoever. Yoruichi smiled, "It seems that his skills at barriers have increased greatly. I wonder if it's a Vaizards thing." She pushed off the ground, "Kisuke! I've got a question for your genius brain!" She quickly turned into a cat and ran to him, climbing up his body to his shoulder.  
Hirako shook his head and continued to watch the battle. But he was beginning to worry; all of them had released their masks by the first 15 minutes; even Hirako and Kensei, and they were the strongest. What was taking her so long?

Then Yoruichi's question clicked. She was a Shinigami for a long time, with many connections to the Shinigami life. It would be hard for her to don a hollow mask, when she'd fought them more times than she could count. It would be hard for her to control something when she kept pushing it away from her. Of course it was hard for her to beat her hollow when she couldn't see it as anything but an enemy; not another part of herself! "Urahara!"

"Yes, Hirako-san?" In moments, the blonde was right beside him and he explained his theory to him, slightly distracted by the cat which decided to jump back and forth from him and Urahara; until Urahara grabbed it and it asked for a belly rub. To think this was a captain... seriously. Kids these days.

Urahara nodded and then replied, "Yes, we thought of that as well, but then if that were the case; wouldn't we have a huge problem with you? You're even older than her."

"Yes, but I don't have the attachment that she does. My entire family died out many years ago, and I never married or had children." Well as far as he knew, he had no kids...you never knew that one for sure. "My biggest connection is Shizuka, Shunsui, Jyuushiro and Yamamoto-sensei. Yamamoto wants me dead and I'm pretty sure my friendship to Shunsui and Jyuushiro are nowhere near the connection she has, considering that one is her father and the other her godfather. I guess having Shizuka here made it easier for me to transition and let go of Seireitei being home."

"But she's got you here, and you've known her for..." Urahara faded off, unsure of the answer.

"Since she was in her mama's womb." He answered, wryly thinking of how he'd said almost the same thing to Aizen. "But I'm not the father or the godfather. I'm the guy who went drinking with them, and bought lots of gifts for her, and taught her some cool techniques and it's been so many years that we're more like good friends." He wasn't so happy with this releasing all information to everyone, even if it was Urahara, so this was becoming tiresome. Well at least he wasn't blowing up at the thought of Aizen.

"I see. What about you? Are you feeling alright?" Translation: _Are you going to go psycho on us again?_

"Yes, so I've worked it out by myself." _No, fuck off, I don't want to talk about it._

"Alright, but if- WHA..." Urahara cut off as he began running towards the barrier. Shizuka's hollow had decided to show itself and last.

And it was beating the shit out of Tessai.

* * *

(1) The kido technique used here is Hado, or Way of Destruction 73. It's basically Hado 33: Sokatsui (Blue fire, Crash down); times two. I've noticed that captains rarely say the incantation, but just their name and the Hado works, but if you were wondering what the incantation is; it goes like this: "_Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens."_

**Author's Note: **Okay, there's chapter two! This wasn't supposed to be a cliff hanger... but the writing got too long, so I added an extra chapter to this. I have a relatively good idea of where this is going and what's going to be happening, but I don't like my chapters over 8 pages... cause then I feel like I'm droning on and on... anyways, see you all next Sunday!

There's the really pretty button right below: if you press it; I'll send you a couple virtual cookies. Or just one, I want some too.


	3. Asymptote

**Imbroglio**

**By: ataleoncetold**

**Author's note: H**ey people!! This is the updated version!! Thanks to Pyrite for the update!!!

**Thanks to: **Memuro for favourite-ing Imbroglio! Thanks to TwilightShadow for writing the fight between Kensei and Shizuka! Damn if I wrote that... you readers would kill me with a zanpakutou. I also want to thank .dragon, cheeky half-demon and sublimefantasy for reviewing.

**Chapter 3: Asymptote**

_Ah-sim-tot_: In mathematics, a line that a relation or function becomes infinitely closer to, but never actually reaches.

Before Hirako could say another word, he saw Yoruichi run to Hachi and forced the barrier to double in strength. Urahara left him in seconds and then called to Kensei, "I'll grab Tessai, start fighting her!"

"Sounds good."

So the two Shinigami entered the opening Yoruichi created in the barrier, and then set to work on their individual tasks. Thinking remarkably alike for two Shinigami who rarely worked together before; the two set on stopping...whatever this was. Kensei grabbed her arms from behind and distracted Shizuka, who dropped Tessai and growled; the pushed free of his arms. While Shizuka attacked Kensei, Urahara grabbed Tessai and sprinted out. Yoruichi closed the barrier right behind him, ripping part of his kimono that was stuck between the barriers.

Kensei unsheathed his zanpakutou and twirled the kunai lightly. Shifting his center of gravity lower towards a defensive stance, he expertly manipulated the blows as they came. All of her blows are wild and she's putting too much force behind each one, Hirako thought.

Leaning back to avoid another blow, he dodged towards the right and lunged forward zanpakutou swinging. The blade cut right into the cloth, and with a quick downward slash, her arm seemed to be mutilated. However he was soon corrected. Feinting towards the left, her blade came at him with unnerving speed, however as she swung downwards at him diagonally from the left, her blade reversed direction with an arc and came at him from the right in a horizontal slash.

The move was fast... too fast. With his knife still in position to block the diagonal slash, he was unprepared for the one that came from right.

Hirako tensed in that instant. Kensei managed to jump back as that was the only way to avoid the whistling blade. However he did not escape unscathed. The tip of the blade lacerated a half inch thick gash from the right side of his torso to his left. I don't think he can keep this up for much longer. Hurry up and disable her Kensei. Damn idiot was taking such a long time to do this. I swear to freaking Kami...

Without giving Kensei a moment's pause, Shizuka lunged at him again. However unexpectedly, she repeated the same move. As the blade came down in a diagonal fashion, it reversed and came from the right. "That won't work on me again!"

Ducking, Kensei lunged forward with a blow to the neck that should have disabled her by attacking her nerves.

But something was wrong, very wrong. She wasn't moving from her position. Though she only had a split second to move, she wasn't even remotely reacting, not even a reaction that was too slow for Kensei's lunge. With a chill, Kensei raised his head to Shizuka's mask in the instant his knife should have disabled her. There was a sudden flash of red, and the world went dark.

"Damn it Kensei what the hell is wrong with you?" Hirako snapped. If he could fight the girl right now, he would, but considering the whole "he couldn't stand properly, let alone fight a psycho inner hollow," he compromised by shouting at Kensei for being a natural idiot. What kind of a captain let himself get hit in the face with a damn cero? Well Muguruma Kensei that's who.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Rose get up to take Kensei's place. He rolled his eyes and sighed, what was happening to the captains if all that was a left was a bunch of lunatics and utter morons? Someone needed to pound some sense into them, seriously. "If Kensei lost to her, what makes you think you're any more special?" He called out to the blonde.

"Love-san, Rose-san, do you think you could both fight her at the same time?" It was Urahara, who had shunpo'd the short way to get to the two Vaizards. Without waiting for an answer, he rushed back to Yoruichi, and Hirako could see him asking her to open the barrier. Rose and Love looked at each other and nodded, following the blonde scientist into the barrier. Once again the group distracted Shizuka as Urahara dragged out a bloody Kensei. This was turning into a blood bath. Oh fuck. If she couldn't control her inner hollow, the consequences were inevitable. Fuck.

What was he supposed to do? He forced himself to his feet and limped to Urahara, who was treating Kensei and Tessai at the same time.

Before he could open his mouth, Urahara shoved a roll of bandages into his hands, "Hold it against the bleeding on the head, I need to deal with the slash across his torso" Oh mother of Yamamoto, he could see intestines. Great. Just Great. Hirako sighed and adjusted to make sure that Kensei couldn't move as Urahara began to heal him. A thank you would've been nice, you know. His body ached from supporting another person when he could barely support himself; but he ignored the strain on his muscles and instead began to pay attention to the fight above. Rose and Love were their last chance, if they failed, then she wasn't Shizuka anymore. She was just another hollow.

He sensed Mashiro running up to Kensei. "Hirako-san, do you need help?" Now she asks. After he was covered in blood and who knows what else. She sat beside Kensei and held onto his hand. He had a split finger... that would scar for sure. Hirako thanked whoever was in charge of all the big stuff for not letting that happen to his beautiful fingers.

"Too late, I've got him." He told her. He hated kids trying to prance about before asking what they really wanted to ask. He sighed, "So what is it?"

Mashiro's eyes widened and a blush stained her cheeks. "How did you know?"

Did he look like an idiot? God Lord, nobody paid attention to the world nowadays. "I'm a genius, you didn't stand a chance" Well it was true. She didn't. "Now what is your question?"

She hesitated for just a moment, then asked, "What if Kyouraku-san can't control her hollow? What will happen to her then?"

Hirako pressed his left hand into Kensei's shoulder to hold him in place and then looked at Urahara for support. That sneaky bastard- he was carefully looking away from him, avoiding having to answer the question. Of course it all came to him, "She'll become a full hollow."

"What then?" Seriously, the standards for seated officers were becoming seriously low.

"How do people deal with hollows?" He asked her wryly. He was going to kill Urahara for this. Making kids cry wasn't really a hobby of his.

It finally hit her. You zanpakutou them real hard, and hope their soul is cleansed and then you move on to the next one. She gasped quietly and tightened her grip on Kensei.

"Yeah."

He looked up and saw Rose and Love fight...the thing. That was not her. He knew her, and that sure as hell wasn't her. This was an ugly monster who wanted to cause pain and harm and suffering and Shizuka was the opposite of that one hundred percent. He remembered finding her once taking care of a rabbit she found in the woods; and bringing it home to him first because there was always the chance that he could convince her father to keep it. She was always the gentle one who took care of everyone and hated fighting without a valid reason, but this...this creature was not her. He'd rather she died that continued like this, screw his promise to Kyouraku if it broke who Shizuka was.

He sneaked a quick look at the two captains fighting Shizuka and realized that they were just barely holding their own. They were going to lose it, and she was about to go on a rampage. They way he saw it, he had two choices: 1) He let her become a hollow completely, and lose her forever, or 2) He found some way to bring her back. Well choice one was basically happening already so either he stopped it or he risked having to kill her. All the captains had already fought, so it left him and Yoruichi- and Yoruichi looked like she was about to fall flat on her face from exhaustion. So basically, it was him.

He cursed loudly, shocking Mashiro into a defensive stance, and causing Urahara to flinch. He knew his limits, he was not an idiot- and if he fought her right now, he would be the one dying, but what was he to do? Watch as weaklings tried to fight her and kept getting hurt? How about, 'no, fuck you'? Seriously. He let go of Kensei as Urahara moved to treat his head wound.

"Thank you, Hirako-san. I'll be fine from now." Urahara said as he wiped away all the blood and began to heal using kidou. Hirako moved out of the way, but Urahara's look made him sit back down and wait.

"So what's your plan?" Love and Rose were doing okay, but she wasn't exactly getting tired; even though they were. What were they to do? Send them all out till they came back bloody and Urahara had to fix them? Yeah, smart idea. Let's just kill them all off.

"Well, we can't keep sending them out because for one, we've run out of captains; and I can't keep treating them, we need something better than this; something permanent" So Urahara also understood. Now the only choice was to either kill her, or turn her as fast as possible. "I'm going to go back in the barrier with Yoruichi and the two of us will bind her and drain her energy with kidou; it should force her to control her hollow before all her energy is sucked out. Hold his neck."

What sort of a plan was that? And he thought Urahara was a genius. Genius, my ass; thought Hirako. He knew about that kidou- it was so above hundred when it came to number for a reason; there was no way that someone like Urahara could pull it off without being full powered. "You're both exhausted, but you think you can do that? Last time you went inside the barrier, I saw you limping kid; there is no way you can pull that off. And the cat? Are you blind or just plain stupid boy? She's beyond exhausted!" From the corner of his eye, he noticed that all the Vaizards were running towards Urahara and Him, so he waited till everyone reached him. Bunch of lieutenants...this was going to be a miserable failure. Wonderful.

"Okay, here's the deal- we need to bind her, then using kidou, we need to drain her energy so that she'll return to her Shinigami self, and the problem is actually binding her. I know you're all lieutenants so it's not like you're a bunch of weaklings," He paused, looking at Mashiro, Lisa, Hiyori, "But with the three of you, we should be able to pull it off okay?"

The three women looked at him in confusion, but it was Lisa who asked, "What kidou are you talking about?" Damn these kids for being so curious these days.

Before he could give an answer, Urahara interrupted him, "Just let me worry about the kidou, you three tell Yoruichi the plan and make sure Hachi's ready with the barrier" He said this with a voice that demanded no argument, so the three- yes, even Hiyori- went on their way.

"How the hell do you plan to do this? There is no one strong enough to pull off the kidou right now; except Hachi, and if Hachi lets go of the barrier..." Then it hit him. With this plan, everyone was involved except for the injured. "Wait, if we move Kensei and Tessai into the infirmary, then it's okay if the barrier breaks for a while" Urahara nodded. "Let Hachi perform the kidou, then the three of us who are not fighting can form a barrier while the five of them bind and fight her." That sounded desperate and Hirako could see a billion things going wrong with it, but it was literally all they had. Yamamoto would flank him for such a stupid plan.

"How are Rose and Love supposed to know what to do?" asked Mashiro.

"Are you a kidou expert or not? Bakudo 77?" Hirako slapped his forehead. This was getting hilarious, in an insane sort of way. "You know what, you don't worry about; I will."

"Oh...kay."

"Well here goes nothing."

Hirako walked to Hachi and told him the plan, and the women helped Urahara move Kensei and Tessai upstairs. As soon as they came back down; Hirako, Urahara and Yoruichi positioned themselves, and the women unsheathed their zanpakutou. "On the count of three," He called out.

"One." Everyone tensed.

"Two." Hachi raised his arms.

"Three." With a loud bang, the barrier broke; and the three people inside froze for a moment.

"Bakudo 77: Tenteikura!" Hirako wouldn't have been able to bring his arms forward and do the motions if it weren't for the pure resolve in himself to save her. The markings grew quickly on his arm and the streaks of white light began to flow from him to all the fighters except for Shizuka. He let his memories quickly seep into their mind and instantaneously, Love and Rose knew the plan and the five Shinigami started formation.

The five looked at each other and a perfect plan formed in their minds. Together, they made the same hand movements and with one voice chanted, "Bakudo 63: Sajo Sabaku!" White gold braids of reiatsu came together from 5 sides and tightened against Shizuka, binding her arms together. And with that, the three captains not fighting her stood in a large triangle, and began to form a barrier. Hirako motioned to Hachi to begin.

Hachi flew into the air and stood mid-air, wind blowing away from his feet. He formed a diamond with his index fingers and thumbs and began the incantation, "Ye Lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of man! Tainted and Cunning! Take what is neither yours nor given by the sacred seal, when the sky demon laughs and the tree nymph smiles- steal it away and return it not! Hado 117: Katsuryoku Monotori!" (1)

A large translucent pink sphere began to form around Shizuka and a black and white, twisted string connected the huge sphere to Hachi. Slowly, the sphere began to become smaller as the energy left from the sphere and began to enter Hachi's body. Hirako waiting for the telltale sign of her changing back to her Shinigami self, and then to his horror realized that it simply wasn't happening. Somebody up there wanted him to slowly suffer and die and goddamn it if it was Yamamoto he was going to murder that old man. If he didn't die first that is. Why did it sound so easy to tell Mashiro that they'd have to kill Shizuka if she turned into a hollow when it was so fucking hard to actually accept?

He suddenly remembered snippets of a certain period of time; so long ago that it was a miracle he remembered these things. He was seriously getting old. Shizuka was between 20-30 years, and he was in his early hundreds. She was just a baby then, considering how slowly Shinigami children grew. She used to wake him up every morning so he could come to breakfast with 'father and juujuu-chan". He remembered putting her to sleep and watching her grow up. He remember her running to him after her first broken heart, afraid to go to her father or Jyuushiro; her first love having left her mere hours after she gave him her first time. Needless to say, the man never picked up another sword; even Retsu couldn't fix him once Hirako had been through him. He supposed it was after that event that they became really close. Then the clearer memories started to tread in; of them going out after a particularly hard cleansing; or him spinning her in the air after she became captain.

No.

He couldn't accept her not being in his life. He couldn't really remember much before it. He was so used to her. I take her for granted, he realized. He supposed that this was happened when you help raise a child, and end up seeing them as mature and powerful as you. This was what happened when you live far longer than you should.

The sphere was becoming smaller and smaller; and Hachi was sweating and gaining way too much energy for his good. But Shizuka still remained hollow. He sighed. It was always hard for her to accept hollows. It was probably her stupid part- she'd seen too many people die from them that she couldn't understand that hollows were just lonely, miserable souls. How the hell was she ever to accept the hollow part of herself? She would just reject it, and run; and then it would just take over. Hirako heard Hachi gasp. Damn, if Hachi continued, he was going to blow himself up. Hirako sighed and looked at Urahara and realized that the kidou was active still, because Urahara understood his thoughts and nodded.

He heard a voice in his head, "The two of us will manage, so go."

Mustering up strength he couldn't possibly have, he flew up to the black and white string and grabbed it, facing Hachi. What most people didn't know about this kidou (if they knew of the kidou at all, that is) is that the rope was the weak, if someone grabbed it in between, they could take all the energy into themselves. So Hirako did; slowly taking in Shizuka. The reiatsu was frozen cold, and smelled like chrysanthemums, and yet it rushed at him. He settled his own reiatsu and forced it to accept it. God it felt so good, he could feel his aches slowly leaving his body, and strength returning to him.

"Thanks." Hirako looked at Hachi, who had a look of relief on his face; "She has so much energy, I couldn't control it; it just kept coming..." He took deep breaths, trying to calm his body down.

"Go upstairs, you've done enough- I can handle her." He ordered Hachi, who gratefully obeyed.

Hirako was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of power flowing through him; so he made a split second decision. He was strong enough, and if this kept going on, all her energy would enter him and she would die. He snapped the thread connecting the two of them and then the two began to fight. Or at least, Hirako began to fight. She was so weak she just stood there; ready to fall to the ground. He swung his zanpakutou at her; and then it seemed that she came to what was left of her senses because she sent a cero at him. Within seconds, their swords clashed violently against each other; and then she pulled away.

She then threw a cero at him, only to have Hirako destroy it with a swift slash from his sword. But he wasn't expecting her to throw her sword into the air and cero him with the other hand. But he was quick enough to dodge it and shunpo'd away. Within a few minutes he realized that they were too alike in their way of fighting (Yeah uh, guess who taught little Shizuka to fight?) and in power level; so this could go on for quite a while. But he needed her to stop soon, or it would be too late. He thought of his own transformation. The one reason that he was able to defeat his inner hollow was because his inner hollow had a perverse obsession with Hiyori that made Hirako sick to the stomach. He supposed his inner hollow possessed traits that were opposite to him. Or something like that. When he realized that, he understood that he would never let him take over and hurt his little brat; and that conviction drove him to defeat his inner hollow.

He thought of Shizuka, what could possibly cause her most alarm? What would be the one thing she could do that she would never be able to forgive herself? Hurting her father? Too late about that one- who knew, how Shunsui was holding up? Wait. Then it dawned to him. Ah. That would be harming someone who she loved. He supposed that he counted in there somewhere, you know, having known her all his life and all that...

So he stopped fighting.

She took the opportunity to grab him by the neck and throw him into the ground, then using her sword, she slashed right across his chest, and blood gushed out of the wound. Fuck. Why did he have to have such sensitive skin? It was always scarring. Whatever. He could take the pounding from her. Right. He heard screaming inside his head, practically everybody telling him this was a bad idea but nobody was strong enough to come and attack. He tried to repeat again and again, sending a mental message to all of them that he knew it would work; that it was okay.

After a few minutes he was ready to rethink the plan. Why did he choose a plan that required beating himself up for anyways? This wasn't even working... wait. Oh wait. That last time she had punched him, he'd seen a bit of hesitation, and a small crack in the mask. Then it would heal up and she would attach again.

"Shizuka." He tried to speak, he was pretty sure his trachea was crushed; he was having a bit of hard time breathing. "Shizu it's me, Shinji- wake up!" He croaked. "Wake up you idiot!!"

"Shiz... there were 3 flowers in a vase." He began to repeat her bedtime story for her and that was when reality hit the hollow. And hit it hard it did. Shizuka may not be a strong willed person, but should she become pissed off, well all of Earth, Seireitei and Hueco Mundo better watch out.

And then her mask shattered.

**Author`s note: **Okay, next update will be in about 2 minutes... as soon and I read it over and replace the old chapter 3... remember its Sundays!!! Till then:D


	4. Farrago

**Imbroglio**

**By: ataleoncetold**

**Author`s note: **Hey readers! It is currently 7:30 pm in Zurich right now and I am really going to piss off my beta because I keep sending her things the night before I publish... I need to like... finish by Wednesday or something... the loser I am. Alrighty, I have nothing to say except thanks for the reveiws and thanks to ThunderClaw03 for a story favourite and Kibasgirl521 for a story alert! I appreciate lots!! And thanks to Pyrite, who has not reviewed this yet but thats so my fault and I will have this and chapter 5 betad by next week:D

**Chapter 4: Farrago**

_Fa-RAH-go_: A confused mass of objects or people; any disordered mixture

"Please send us to the real world, Yama-ji" Kyouraku Shunsui stood in front of the 1st Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, in the assembly of, well, whatever was left of Gotei 13.

"Request denied" And everyone in the room cringed at the sudden surge in reiatsu from Kyouraku Shunsui and Ukitake Jyuushiro. None of them had ever seen that happen in this room except old Ginrei because well that man was old. But they quickly reigned in their anger, and once again raised their heads to the Captain-Commander. Ukitake had already told Kyouraku that this was going to happen. With so many captains gone, who knew what would happen? Yamamoto wasn't going to risk an entire world for the welfare of, basically one girl. No matter how precious this one girl was to many people.

But still it was Ukitake who asked rather calmly, "Would you at least allow one o-"

"No. And you know why. You don't even know if they are alive, let alone in the real world. If they are, then we are under orders to dispose of them."Yamamoto frowned a bit at that, then continued, " If you keep asking me this in every meeting, I will be forced to suspend both of you and make you hand over your zanpakutou. And this meeting is adjourned."

Kyouraku and Ukitake were the first to leave, and they shunpo'd to the 8th Squad's compound and entered Kyouraku's private office. Shutting the door quickly, the two settled into their usual positions in chairs across each other, with a desk in-between. "Alright what's the plan?" Ukitake wearily asked Kyouraku. He knew they'd been friends way too long when he could recognize that look in Kyouraku's eyes. The look that meant that he had some crazy idea and Ukitake was going to have to follow him through with it, just so he could pull him out of the hot water he was bound to jump into. Then again, this was for Shizuka, and the others- "Obviously, this isn't Urahara's doing" Kyouraku mused. "No way he worked this hard to bring up such an establishment as the Institute and mess up so miserably."

Ukitake nodded, "He's too smart for that."

Kyouraku shook his head, "No, he was stupid. I do believe that Aizen is up to something and Urahara got the short end of the stick" He stared at the wall behind Ukitake and the white haired captain knew he was staring at the painting of his daughter. "We should really investigate this further. What if the danger is not in the real world, but right here in Seireitei?"

Ukitake frowned in concentration. "But Shunsui, that's just another reason for Genryuusai-sensei to refuse us entry to the real world" They both knew that no matter how important their daughter was, the welfare of Seireitei always came first. So the topic became the night of the hollowfication. "You're right though, we will investigate this incident. Thinking about it, there was no reason that Yoruichi would help out Urahara if she knew that he was in the wrong, and with her connections- she would surely know the truth. And she'd never save someone who was to get Seireitei" Even if the girl was a total anomaly in the world of nobles. One thing she followed strongly was the greater good. She would never let her feelings cause harm to Seireitei.

"You never know what a person in love can do if their precious one is in trouble" Kyouraku pointed out.

"Yoruichi would put her duty over any of her feelings. Think about the baby. For Seireitei, she..." Captains weren't supposed to get pregnant. It was part of the requirements of being a female captain, and it was sad and unfair and blah, blah, blah, but the truth of all truths was that a pregnant captain meant that the Squad was run by their Vice-Captain. And for over a year. It just wouldn't happen. And he didn't even know. Hell the two of them wouldn't know if it weren't for the fact that Kyouraku tended to get bored during annual check-ups and decided to snoop through Unohana's files. Man if she found out... the two of them were so freaking dead beyond death that it would be a total waste to have lived so long. This was a touchy subject with Retsu involved. Especially since the two captains vividly remembered the way her entire demeanor changed when she took care of the children. Life was hard for women Shinigami.

"Hmm.... you're right about that. But listen, I've got this id-"

"You know that I worry for Shizuka greatly. But it's like you told Urahara that he needed to trust in Hiyori's ability as a Shinigami. And Shizuka is much older than either Urahara or Hiyori. I believe she'll survive. I think we need to focus more on finding out what's really going on here. Otherwise even though she's safe, she won't be because we lead the Central 43 right to her" He doubted it but if he could convince his Kyouraku off the path of well, destruction- that was always a good thing.

"Hollowfication..." Kyouraku stood up and went to his bookshelf, pulling out the letter he'd hidden inside of a hollowed out book. The sheet was wrinkled and the words were smudged by what were most likely tears. "If only she'd just left for that, and that was it. No, she had to be hollowfied" He unfolded it carefully and handed it to Ukitake, whose nimble fingers took it in and read it.

He sighed and gave it back to Kyouraku, who shook his head and gave it back to him. Ukitake placed it inside his obi. "You never know what a person in love can do if their precious one is in trouble. Indeed. Suddenly Ukitake bend over in pain as nerve wracking coughs overwhelmed him. Kyouraku twitched, wanted to help his dear friend, but he knew it would be disrespect to him, and so simply watched and waited. For a couple minutes, Ukitake took deep breaths, then he finally said in a tired voice, Let's hope Urahara is smart enough to do something about the hollowfication, eh?"

"Alright, first things first then- let's get some information about what really happened."

And so the two captains set about finding the truth about that night.

* * *

"You look awful" was the first thing Hirako heard when he opened his eyes. Hiyori wasn't exactly the first face he wanted to see, or hear when he woke up. It was more like the last. Well then again, he brought this upon himself. He should've left her in Rukongai a long time ago. Meh. But then life would be boring. He looked out the window and saw sunlight bursting into the room. A room filled with Hiyori herself, Urahara, cat Yoruichi and Tessai.

"Well so do you, but then again, you look like that all the time" He replied to the brat. He didn't feel all that bad so he tried to sit up. What the hell, for some reason- he couldn't move his body. He looked accusingly at Urahara who sighed at him, as if he was some little kid who really needed to listen to their parents so something. Seriously! Seniors needed some respect around here... it was probably because he looked so youthful and sexy...

"You have 3 broken ribs; one of them was pushed into your heart and one collapsed your lung. Both your arms are broken and your right scapula was crushed. Your nose was broken, your jaw was crushed- and your right eye was slashed through." Urahara took a break. "So-"

"So it's probably best if you just sit there and let us take care of you. Kisuke is getting sick and tired of doing that so give him and break and don't open something up. He's still got Kensei to look after. "Yoruichi interrupted before he could continue, casually resting on top of Urahara's hat.

"Why can't you just heal me completely using kidou?" Hirako demanded. Looking at Tessai, it was obvious that they'd used kidou on him for sure. But then again, there was only so much kidou that a person could use before you needed some good old medicine.

Urahara blushed just a teeny bit, "We ran out of energy." Hirako didn't know why Urahara was shy about it. Whether it seemed like it or not, it'd been barely a week since they left Seireitei. Urahara and Yoruichi had been taking care of them all- how the hell were they supposed to keep giving out energy? They weren't fox demons with infinite energy... as far as he knew, that is. No need to be ashamed about it.

"And if you make a single complaint about it or my captain I swear to Yamamoto's mother that I'll castrate you in your sleep!" Hiyori snapped at him. Now she was stealing his phrases. Copycat. "So just shut the hell up and go right back to sleep. Now!"

"Ah- Hiyori," Urahara started, but she tramped out of the room. If this was how kids showed affection nowadays, he liked her when she was pissed off at him. Hirako rolled his eyes. Then he winced. Hell that hurt. Oh right, split eye- he should really pay attention to Urahara. Yeah, sleep sounded good right at the moment.

Then the bamboo door slid open with way more force than necessary. "Oh by the way, you are getting way too old to do stupid stuff like that. Leave the heroics to younger people like us, so stop being such an attention whore." And the blonde kid walked right out once again. So what if he was an attention whore! Hirako practically had steam coming out of his ears, and that kind of hurt (then again, everything hurt). The point was, what the fuck, he totally deserved that attention! Or he wouldn't demand it! Sexy people should be stared at and adored, obviously! "Where did I go wrong in raising this brat?" He muttered.

Urahara grinned, and then said him, "Hirako-san, before you go to sleep, Shizuka wanted to talk to you privately"

Tessai took a step forward, "Hirako-san, I owe you my life, and so I am indebted to you. Thank you for risking your own life for mine." He bowed low to him, "I'll then get Shizuka-san for you"

The moment the bamboo doors closed, Hirako asked Urahara, "How is she doing?" Knowing her, she was probably holding back tears and driving people insane with worry. And not just about him, either. He remembered when Jyuushiro got sick and Retsu was openly worried for his life, even having him complete his will and whatnot. That was one of three times that he ever saw Unohana cry.

That time, Shizuka had come over and decided that his living condition was far too messy to be healthy, and set about cleaning it. She found at least 4 bras of different sizes, and that was the cleanest thing in the house. The kitchen took her a day, what with the spoiled food and sake bottles lying around everywhere. Then she set about changing his meal plans; and complaining to Yamamoto about the missions he received. She even had all the good sake stores promise to never sell him liquor. Good lord, if she hadn't grown up with Yamamoto, he could've bet on her being sent off to some random place in the real world, with no rations. And then, she'd gone around and told Lisa not to read scary stories to little Nanao-chan. Because of course, stories about little girls with long hair stuck in towers; and princes coming to save them- was way too scary for a Shinigami to be. Nanao-chan just rolled her eyes, had Lisa read another story- and then set about learning how to read "the scary stories". Oh, that kid was cute. She was going to chase men away with sticks when she grew up... well, most probably just Kyouraku and his lecherous hands.

Urahara grinned and replied, "She's cleaned the entire building top to bottom, made tea about 6 times today and it's ten in the morning, and managed to sit Hiyori down and comb her hair out. That was before she saw Lisa's new outfit and told her to put on something longer because otherwise somebody was going to rape her. Lisa just walked away mumbling 'damn Hirako for pulling an Ukitake-sama on us all" By the end of it, Yoruichi was laughing so much, she almost fell off Urahara's head. Then she did, and he caught her. Damn it all to hell. He cared for both of them, but man if this hurt Hiyori even a bit, he was going to have issues with it. He turned serious for a moment, "She's obviously really worried"

It seemed that was the cue for Shizuka to walk in because the bamboo doors slid open at that opportune moment. Hirako noticed two things very quickly. One, her eyes were really baggy, and it just wasn't a good look on her. Two, she was hiding her arms under her sleeves, so something was wrong with her hands. She walked in and sat on the floor right beside him, leaving the door open; a subtle sign asking for Urahara and Yoruichi to make their exit.

"Then we'll bring you some brunch, okay?" Shutting the doors tightly behind them, Urahara and Yoruichi left the room.

He closed his eyes and rested. Her covered hand was clutching his and it took him a moment to realize that she was silently sobbing. Oh God. He could stand Hiyori's tears of frustration when she couldn't get a method right, and Ukitake's tears of laughter at one of his or Kyouraku's outlandish jokes. But these were tears of guilt and just plain sadness. And he'd usually never seen this from her. The last time she came crying to him was when her father locked her bank account for spending too much money- and that was maybe 50 years ago. So this was a shock. Fuck. He wasn't used to this from her. Or from anyone for that matter, since nobody in their right mind would go to Hirako Shinji when they were upset. Unless it was all his fault and they were coming to beat him up.

What the heck was he supposed to say? He himself wouldn't want any pity. Then again, he'd never cry in front of anyone. A sudden silence told him that she had stopped with the sobbing. Finally, she spoke. "Do you remember that time when you and Kuchiki-taichou fought against me in front of Yamamoto to determine if I could be a captain?" She asked him.

Hirako nodded. Urgh, he really didn't want to remember the one time where it seemed like a girl other that pretty but scary Unohana almost beat him. But it was still almost. And this time didn't count, because he clearly let her win. He was so totally stronger than her. Oh yeah. He figured though, that if Hiyori ever reached Captain level... he might as well lay down and let her beat him to a pulp. It would probably break less bones. And he treasured his beauty a lot more tha- oh right, somebody was talking to him. He'd forgotten about that for a second. Maybe he was getting old.

"Well, you didn't let me get away with anything, even though you knew me and Ginrei-sama has spoiled me since birth" Ayumi's mother had been Kuchiki Ginrei's sister, and she as a child used to visit Ginrei often. "You two weren't just hard, you were harder on me, because if I wasn't ready, I wouldn't have lived long as a Captain" She paused, "You always do what you don't want to for my sake. And I'm starting to think I've gained another father in you."

Hirako was surprised. He's never really looked at it that way. Yes, it was true that he helped bring her up- but back then, he seemed much younger than Kyouraku and Ukitake. He seemed like a child next to Yamamoto and Ginrei. He couldn't define his relationship with her, all he knew was that if anyone hurt her- they weren't going to live for long. Then thinking of Yamamoto, it occurred to him that they still didn't know why she was with them. So ignoring what she just said, "What are you doing here? Did the old man send you after us?"

Her hands intertwined with his, "No"

"Then?" What? Did she randomly decide, 'hey let me disobey straight orders from the Captain-Commander of Seireitei and just go after a bunch of random people on a mission'. If she did, he seriously needed to re-evaluate Shizuka's state of mind. Maybe _she _was getting too old. "Did your father send you after us?"

"No" What the fuck. Maybe she was in love with the genius kid too. Hmm. He wasn't that bad to look at anyways. At least from a guy's point of view- he could've posed a challenge to anyone indeed. But, wasn't he a little too young for her? Interesting. Well then again, maybe she was worried for him. She worried way too much. It never even occurred to him that Urahara wasn't the only man around.

"Well, then you should've trusted me with the mission I was assigned. Now look where you are!" Then he began to get angry. He'd always taken her to be the type of person who hated it when people were upset over them. Quite a lot of people would be upset right now. And yes, people were sad and teary about all of them, but she had a damn choice about this! Fuck. "Don't you know what you're doing to your father? To Ukitake? Haven't they lost enough over the years? Must they lose you too?" She'd gone pale, and he'd gone way too far. He didn't think he'd ever been this harsh with her.

She bit her lip and opened her mouth to answer. Then decided not to and pressed her lips together. "What about you?"

"I'd have rather I never see you again if it meant you were safe, and didn't have to go through with this" It was true. He could do that. That's why he'd left his home as a child, and ran to Seireitei. That area was attacked constantly because of his great reiatsu. It was safer for his mother if he left. She was long dead. But he was okay with it, time erased a lot of things- and what remained of her were small glimpses of the past; her smile- or the taste of breakfast that his mother made for him. The vibrant blue of her kimono. But not her face. So it was okay. He could learn to forget Shizuka too.

"I'd rather be..." And she stopped mid-sentence. "I'm sorry I hurt you. And I'm sorry that you do this for me, that you care for my state of mind more than your own health. I know I can't go back to Seireitei, but I'll leave if you do this again. You're not young anymore. Neither of us is, and you're acting like someone fresh out of the academy" Hirako was so shocked that he just watched as she got up off the floor, opened the doors and left.

"I'm acting like a kid?" He huffed. Who was it that followed him into a mission for no good reason whatsoever? Right, that would be Shizuka. Who was she kidding? She was the kid here, not him. Seriously. What the hell was wrong with her? Well, whatever- he was tired- so he was going to go to sleep.

He lay back down and closed his eyes. And he had no idea what the hell was wrong with her. Damn it all, he'd figure it out later. He was too tired to care at the moment.

* * *

"Stop it! You'll make yourself worse!" Mashiro grabbed Kensei by the shoulders and tried to stop him from getting out of bed. Kensei closed his eyes. She was right in front of him, and she had like no sense of self. Honestly, he did not need breasts in his face. No matter how big and- okay let's not go there. He sighed.

"Fine, I will if you go away" What she didn't know, wouldn't hurt her. Lying like this was completely pissing him off- thank God Unohana wasn't here, or he really would have to lie in bed all day healing.

"Kensei!" She whined.

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Tai-" Then he stopped. "Never mind, just go away" He wasn't her captain anymore. They were both outcasts. All the hard work he did to get where he was in Seireitei, and against hollows, and now he was partly one. They had no status here, so she was his equal.

"Ya know Kensei, with the way you act all high and might, you'll remain my captain always" It seemed that Mashiro knew what was going inside his head, which unnerved him- but she'd been doing that for a while now. It was probably why she was able to always do the exact opposite of what he wanted. Totally the bane of his life.

"Well if so, then listen to me for once! Haven't I told you to trust me? I'll be fine! Stop pestering me!" He hoped this would cause her to just leave in annoyance or something, but the carefree girl just quieted down.

"Two times." What the hell was she talking about? "Two times I was sure you were dead. If it weren't for Hirako-taichou and his quick thinking to save you and Shizuka," She paused, and he retorted inwardly- save him? Hirako was just trying to protect Shizuka- weren't they best friends or something? She continued on though, "You'd be dead right now"

He cringed, great now he owed the narcissist blonde his life. He really didn't want to owe a life debt to anyone. Well, better him than say- Mashiro. "Great"

Mashiro frowned, "Stop that, you two are so condescending to each other, it's plain stupid; and for that matter, you should thank him for risking his own life. You saw him when he walked in, he looked like he was about to collapse, and look at him now. Or don't, because you'd have to get up then- but the point is, when Urahara and Yoruichi stepped out of the room after fixing up Hirako-sama, they were covered in blood, and they collapsed cause they'd ran out of energy. Just be grateful."

"What's your point? I know I owe him now"

"I don't care about that" She huffed. "I just don't want to have to think about what to do if you're dead." And with that she walked out. Well, that went well. He sighed, but decided she couldn't help it- when Mashiro cared, she gave it everything. So he stopped thinking about it all, and closed his eyes. In minutes he fell asleep.

Hours later, when Kensei woke up, he found Mashiro, curled up in sleep at his feet.

**Author Notes: **And there is chapter 4. I might be writing a rather hilarious story about Hirako and the goodnight story... the plut bunny and walking circles around me right now. So yeah. Till next Sunday then!


	5. Scaevity

**Imbroglio**

**by: ataleoncetold**

**Author's note: **Hey faithful (or not so faithfull) readers and commenters! I must say thanks for reading- and thanks for all storz alerts and favs, I would list them- but I don't have the time to do so. Just know that they're appreciated! Special thanks to Pyrite who manages to edit even with her monstrously hectic schedule (honey, if I had money I'd pay for you to edit for me!) Anyways, enjoy chapter 5.

**Chapter 5: Scaevity**

_Ska-E-vity_: unluckiness, left-handedness

Urahara Kisuke was seriously worried and tired, but that a different story. The whole morning, he was trying to work out some problems in his office, and the results were beginning to scare him. It was one thing for Yoruichi to bring all the money from their bank accounts. In fact it was the rather smart thing to do. But you see what neither of them had counted on was the fact that money in Seireitei wasn't worth as much in the real world anymore. Well it made sense, considering that the economy in Japan was doing rather well, while the economic situation was becoming worse and worse by the week in Seireitei, and inflation rates were increasing. He supposed it couldn't be helped. The problem nowadays was that Shinigami lived longer.

A couple thousand years ago, when Shinigami had no methods, and Yamamoto decided to finally take some action; the ones who did fight hollows tended to die-quickly. The only exceptions were Yamamoto-taichou himself, Kyouraku, Shunsui, Hirako, Retsu and Ginrei; but Ginrei was relatively young. However, during those times, the methods for fighting hollows were rather primitive and the amount of Shinigami who died was easily replaced by the new recruits.

The problem now was that with new techniques, technology and plain experience, Shinigami lived longer; but a lot of them were simply unemployed. More Shinigami were entering the ranks that dying; and less Shinigami were needed now than before for missions. There was nothing anyone could do about it though. Telling people, 'make sure you die this mission,' just didn't sound right you know?

Anyways, with so much unemployment, Seireitei was at an all time low, he supposed it was a good thing that they had left because it did create quite a lot of new jobs. He hoped that the Institute continued on- Yamamoto and Central 46 were happy when he had built it, creating more jobs for Shinigami in whole point of the last two paragraphs was that with Japan becoming more and more industrialized, their economy was booming, so the 7 billion and change that they had bought from Seireitei had just become 12.9 million yen, which was- yes it was- nothing and since the money hadn't been pooled or anything, people in Hiyori had very little in their accounts while Hirako and Shizuka (from time and lots of interest) and Yoruichi (from the family) possessed more than half of it together.

He supposed the shop could bring them some money but it wasn't going to be a lot. And he couldn't do any calculations because he'd paid for food and housing (what? It was HIS house anyways), and he couldn't afford to continue to do so without going completely broke. They needed to sit down and have a long conversion about this problem.

"Yoruichi." He said to the woman currently sleeping on the couch beside his chair. "Yoruichi." He walked to her and woke her up.

"No! Just because I look like a cat doesn't mean I would have sex in cat form! Asshole! " And she slapped him. "Huh? Fuck Kisuke stop doing that to me! I'm trying to sleep!" She yawned and sat up on the couch.

"Can you get everyone together? We need to have a meeting."

"Do it yourself."

"Yoruichi-san, I would really appreciate it, and otherwise, how am I supposed to ask Shizuka-san to cook for us?" Oh he was a genius. A manipulative bastard of a genius was what he was.

"I'll be back."

* * *

Yoruichi was starting to become rather exasperated. This meeting wasn't going to happen and Shizuka wasn't going to make her food. This was all stupid Hirako's fault.

This is exactly what happened when she tried to bring this meeting together.

"We'll have to wait till Hirako wakes up." Yoruichi had raised an eyebrow at Hachi, and had sighed in reluctant submission when Love and Rose both nodded with him.

"Any decisions we make will have to go through Hirako, that's just how it's going to be." And that was Kensei. Even sick in bed, he was a bitch. Mashiro simply nodded in sleep on the floor, mumbling something about the captain's wishes.

Well, she was a captain! Kisuke was a captain!

Hiyori had also garbled, "Wait for Hirako," and then drooled onto her hand. She'd wiped it on Hirako's shirt and walked right out. Stupid Hirako always managed to annoy her one way or the other.

Lisa hadn't said a single word except, "Sleep," so that was probably a no as well.

Yoruichi went back and smacked Kisuke in the head, "They want Hirako. So you wait. But I want food or I'm gonna start sitting on your head again, and not in cat form." She snapped and walked back to the couch.

What did someone have to do to get a bit of good food and some sleep here?

* * *

Hirako had been asleep for two days now, being fed on IV. Only this morning had Hiyori fallen asleep and everyone else? Well, they'd been lazing around the building or helping Urahara. They really had no choice when he informed them with an innocent smile that he needed help, and he'd appreciate if they'd help- since after all, he did save their life. Rose and Lisa had disappeared for a while yesterday, and Lisa was currently asleep in her bed so she got out of the job.

Shizuka was the smart one. She oh so kindly offered to cook lunch for them and grabbed Rose so the two of them could go grocery shopping in the nearby market. Urahara had let out a sigh of relieve that at least one of them could cook, and quickly nodded to let them go. Why Rose? Well he could hold stuff, and she really didn't want to have to come home hot and sweaty.

As they walked to the market, her thoughts wandered to a certain blonde captain. No not the smart one or the pretty one- she was thinking about the psychotic one. He drove her insane good lord.

But he did save her.

She hoped he would sleep until she came back and had some time to cook because she'd seen everyone, they were looking rather peckish from eating burned, uncooked, over-seasoned or otherwise spoiled food three times a day. If normally healthy people were sick, she wasn't about to give that to somebody who was sick. The last two days, between taking care of Kensei and Hirako with Urahara and Yoruichi as well as working, she'd let Tessai do the cooking. That was a bad idea. She was going to have to teach Tessai to cook something or he was going to start poisoning people by accident.

"Shizuka!!!!" Isshin ran to her. "Have you come to do grocery shopping as well? How dare Urahara send such a pretty lady to do such hard work?"

Urahara had told them Isshin lived in this town, but Isshin had left before she had transformed so she hadn't seen him yet. "Isshin, it's good to see you." She bowed slightly. "No no, I have Rose-san with me, I am fine." She smiled at him innocently.

Retsu used to say that Isshin had a crush on her back when he was in the academy; she had to admit it was rather adorable. Now that she thought about it, every time she came to lecture- she got flowers from him. Hm. Anyways, he was happy here- she supposed they could all manage to do so as well right?

That was when Isshin noticed Rose, "Rose! It's good to see you." They nodded to each other.

"The real world's been doing you a great deal of good, so I see." Rose grinned as his old drinking 's face broke into a smile.

"A lot less paperwork for sure." and the three of them laughed at old memories.

"Though if I remember correctly, you never did your paperwork- I used to hear Yamamoto yelling at your all the way to Rukongai." Rose grinned cheekily.

"Oh come off it! It's because I'm above paperwork! Have you two come here before or would you like me to show you where everything is?" He asked the two of them.

"If it isn't too much trouble, then please do so." Shizuka told him, and they grabbed meat, fish, vegetables, sake and rice as well as some spices and coffee which they had quickly ran out of. Isshin showed them where everything was, and Shizuka paid for all of it. In about two hours, they were done, and they began to walk back to Urahara Shoten. Isshin was about to part when Shizuka invited him over for dinner. If she was paying for the food and making it, she was allowed to bring Isshin.

Besides, he could always help Urahara with whatever it was he was doing.

* * *

Hirako slept.

He dreamt of lots of things. Like Hiyori being nice to him. Or sitting in front of a table full of paperwork, and making Aizen do all the work. Like working together with Kaien Shiba to pull a prank on Kyouraku for disturbing Ukitake during his nap. That had to be a dream; Kaien still hadn't forgiven him for sneaking his way into Kuukaku's bed. He snorted out loud in his sleep. She was an adult, and so was he- maybe she was a little young, but she was damn hot. Kaien needed to get over it. Seriously.

He dreamt of the day he went swimming with Kyouraku and the group as kids, all except Yamamoto and how Jyuushiro had gotten sick and bloodied the water, and how nobody cared because they were more worried for the then boy. He watched as Jyuushiro stopped breathing and Retsu tried to make his breathe again. Kyouraku, becoming more anxious by the minute, pushed her aside and breathed life-saving air into his mouth. He saw Kyouraku rest his forehead against Ukitake's as he finally coughed out some blood and phlegm, then took deep breaths. He saw the look of suspicion in Unohana's eyes and the quiet smile from himself.

And he dreamt of when he had saved Hiyori and enrolled her in the academy. He saw as she clung to his pants and shrieked that she wasn't going anywhere without him. And he dreamt of Kyouraku trying to recruit him and Rose to go and spy on Lisa bathing. He had grinned amusedly and told him that he was asking to get castrated and walked off. Later on, Rose told him how he had escaped Lisa's view but Kyouraku hadn't.

Then he dreamt of girls. Well, he was a guy it happens. One girl kept coming to his sight- she looked like that unseated kid of the 10th squad who was always in his compound, all big boobs and lots of strawberry blonde hair. Raiko or something like that. She was always with that kid Gin. Now that was a genius.

Then he dreamt of Yoruichi scratching his eyes out as a cat.

And then he woke up.

As he opened his eyes, he saw the brat child sleeping beside him on the bed. Someone had put a blanket on her and she was curled up beside him in foetal position. Really cute actually, if it weren't for the snoring and drooling.

"She wouldn't leave and she fell asleep on the floor, so Kisuke moved her to the bed." He turned around and saw Shizuka sitting there, in a pink and white sleeping kimono.

"Hey you." He was wondering if he was about to get another lecture, and then she gave him a small smile.

She came and sat beside him and began to loosen his bandages. "Urahara said you should be healed by now and to take these off." He nodded and watched as she did so. She continued on, "Your joints are all going to ache and we tried to make sure you weren't in one position for two long but your shoulders might be bruised or swollen from lying for so long." She stood up, "You must be hungry, you slept for two days straight, and we just put an IV on you."

Right on time, his stomach growled, agreeing with her. "Do you want something solid, or some soup?

""Can I have soup?" He asked and then tried to get up without waking Hiyori. She nodded and began to walk out of the room. "Wait. I need a shower." She turned around and looked at him.

"Do you think you can stand?" She asked him and walked towards him. He wasn't an invalid. What the hell, he was Hirako Shinji; he could stand up for Yamamoto's sake! Or at least, for his own ego's sake...

He slowly pushed his legs off the bed and onto the floor then tried to get up, he wobbled and Shizuka supported him."Let go." He demanded, and she did, so he stood up; albeit with difficulty, but she didn't need to know that. It was bad enough that she was angry at him for saving her life damn it, but if she saw how much pain he was in, she wouldn't stop.

But he couldn't help his body if it shuddered in pain and resistance when he tried to move to the bathroom. So she followed him, grabbing his hand for support. "Damn it, Shizuka I'm fine!" He snapped.

He didn't know if his patience was lacking or she was more annoying than usual; since he usually found her perfectly amiable, he assumed it was just him, but that didn't mean he was going to change. So there. This girl was going to drive him insane. He pushed her off and she stood there with a scowl on her face, looking rather offended.

"Fine." And she began to walk off.

What the fuck? He groaned. Great, she was angry. Then again, this was just the aftermath of her worry, there wasn't much he could do but piss her off. He wobbled into the bathroom and closed the door. He turned to the bathtub and pushed the stopper in, and then he turned the tap on and let the tub become filled with hot water. Walking up to the sink, he grabbed his toothbrush, smeared some paste on it and began to brush his teeth after he pulled the toilet cover down and sat on it.

A quiet opening of his bedroom door told him someone had just entered. So she was back. Well of course she was worried and drove people insane- it's what she did for God's sake. After he brushed his teeth, he began to take off his clothes. Fuck his life. He couldn't pull his pants off because one of his hands wouldn't stretch enough and he couldn't bend one of his legs. He tried to do it with one hand and leg, losing his balance and toppling into a rather angry mess on the floor.

"So do you want me to help you now?" Bitch. Ah he was going to wring her neck. After she helped him.

"Ya..."

"You're hopelessly arrogant. Has anyone told you how annoying it is?" She asked him and she walked in and helped him with his clothes.

"I also get away with it because I'm so damn sexy"

"Right", she looked away and gave him his privacy as he entered the tub. He sat and closed his eyes as she sat on the edge of the tub behind him and slowly began to lather shampoo into his hair, nimble fingers massaging his skull. H

e knew that Shizuka seemed to the entire world the perfect noblewoman. She was quiet, elegant and beautiful; with a rather petite body. To most people, she also seemed like an arrogant snob; but that was just her being quiet. The ones who knew her well, which were the captains and her Squad, they loved her. It was a fact that a lot of Shinigami men wanted to break that little thing, and it was also a fact that nobody would say that out loud for fear of their own life. He remembered that once a random seated officer in his own squad had said something along the lines of 'breaking in that little doll' and Aizen, not knowing that Hirako had been watching, had actually threw him against the wall and broken each of his fingers.

Hell even the most evil of them loved her. That bastard didn't even get in trouble with Unohana after he explained what happened. She was a clingy thing though, and reminded him more of an annoying sister half the time. She annoyed the hell out of him, yet he worried the hell out for her. Then he realized that didn't really fit either. You don't take your little sister out for a drink, or let your little sister give you a bath.

Man, if the others ever found out."Not a word to anyone about this, Shizu."

Shizuka chuckled. "Sure sure, okay rinse out your hair." He dipped his head under the water and rinsed out his long hair.

When he came up, she asked, "How's your shoulder?" And ran her palm across the shoulders.

"It's fine" Then she pressed hard at a spot, "FUCK Shizuka!" He groaned; that hurt like a mother and something else.

"You're completely sore from lying in bed the whole time" She frowned. Then she began to give his shoulders and back a massage. So being a former 4th Squad member did have its uses. He groaned again, because she was almost, but not, hurting him. Then she grabbed the sponge and began to lather his back with soap, and then she rinsed it out. "No wonder you're having a hard time walking, just shut up and let me help you next time okay?" She told him. She stood up and began to move to his front, rubbing her fingers down his chest and using the sponge to bathe him. He leaned back and allowed her to continue, closing his eyes and resting for a moment. The he heard a little chuckle coming from her, "What happened to all the muscle? You look like such a skinny little boy" She teased him.

Okay that was the limit, he would let her help him and even bathe him, but he wasn't going to take teasing from her.

"I am not skinny, I am lanky, and how can you not see the six-pack?" He grabbed her hands and pressed them against his six-pack and she smirked,

"Seems kind of soft to me, Shinji."

Hirako growled. No way was he soft! He was a perfectly made creature! How could she not feel how beautiful he was? "They are not soft!" He splashed her with some of the water for good measure. She laughed and splashed him back. Big deal, he was already wet. So without thinking for a moment, he grabbed her and with all the strength he could muster, tried to pull her into the water. She ended tripping anyways and because of his shaking, instead of falling back first into the water, she knocked down head first into his chest. "FUCK!" That hurt! Okay, he could admit that was a bad idea.

But now her legs we dangling out of the tub and she was sitting on his legs, leaning against his chest. She turned quickly to look at him and the crown of her head hit his chin. "Shizuka!"

She started to laugh uncontrollably, "Look what you do to yourself!" Then she got up out of the water and sat on the edge again, mirth dancing in her eyes. "I'm guessing you don't need my help anymore right?"

Hirako cursed with every word he knew in his head, and then gave her his trademark, 'creep the girl out' smile, "I can see your boobs." Well it was true, he could see her boobs, the kimono was soaked and he could see them, becoming hard due to the water.

She blushed, then swatted his head and told him, "There are clothes in the closet that Kisuke set up, I'm taking one, and you're not coming into your room until I say you can. Call me if you need help getting out, or what-not okay?" Someone was bound to think she was a virgin. He chortled at the thought. Imagine, 2000 years without sex.

"Okay okay, go away."

In about 10 minutes, he heard her say, "Okay, I'm good," so he stepped out of the tub, dried himself and then wrapped himself in the towel. He pulled out the stopper and the tub began to drain. Then he opened the door and walked into his room. She was sitting on the bed and pulling the blanket over Hiyori which the brat had kicked off in her sleep. Shouldn't she be getting up? Hirako looked at the clock.

It was 12:30pm, what was this girl doing, sleeping? "Hey brat-"

Shizuka's hand quickly covered his mouth and whispered, "She went to sleep at 9 this morning, after two days of staying up for you. Just let her be" Hirako nodded. Shizuka grabbed the western clothes sitting on the other side of the bed and helped him put on a red and white shirt with black pinstripe pants over black boxers. He stared at himself in the mirror, damn it all-he was in pain and still he looked hot. Thank Kami for this blessing indeed.

"Stop staring at yourself." Shizuka scolded him.

He smiled that smile of his, "Look, it's not my fault that I am better looking than you. You're not ugly or anything sweetie, so don't feel bad." She rolled her eyes.

"I'll go get you some miso soup, do you want to come with me or stay here?" She asked him.

"I'll stay." So she left to bring him something to eat. He didn't think about thanking her, besides who does that? It was so old fashioned. He wrapped the towel over his hair and then sat beside Hiyori. He used her blanket to wipe off the drool, and then he moved the position of her head, or she was going to wake up with a rather painful crick in the neck.

So maybe they fought a lot, so what? She stayed up two nights for him, he had to be nice about that; otherwise he would be an arrogant bastard right? (It didn't occur to him that he always an arrogant bastard).

* * *

After he'd eaten and woken up Hiyori, who had in turn kicked him in the face for such a stupid plan; he'd gone outside and drank sake in the afternoon with Rose and Isshin. Well what do you do when they offer? There is no such thing as bad time for sake. Especially free sake. Besides, there was nothing to do, Shizuka wasn't done cooking lunch for everyone and the rest of the group was helping Urahara with who knows what. Except for Kensei, and he wasn't in the mood to talk to him any time soon.

That was when Yoruichi shunpo'd to them – and man that girl's shunpo was probably faster than his- "Hirako-san, Love-san, now that Hirako is awake, can we have the meeting please?" She turned to Hirako only, "Thank God you're awake; the amount of trouble you gave me this morning. I swear. And Kisuke still wants to talk to you and run a quick check-up before the meeting. Come in then, it's in Kensei's room, he's awake!"She skipped back into the Shoten.

Hirako stared at Rose, "What was that supposed to mean?"

Rose grinned at him, "Well, Yoruichi asked us before if we could have a meeting but nobody, not even Kensei would have a meeting until you woke up" Oh brother, sister and any other relative; so they were dumping him with another responsibility. And here he thought his duties were done running a bunch of people. It was like Kami said, 'look, you're going to have a lot of shit happen to you, so I'll make you beautiful so you can deal with it all.'

Damn it all to Hueco Mundo and beyond.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Damn it all to Hueco Mundo and beyond indeed! Let's all thank God that Hirako hasn't yet realized that he's not as beautiful as he thinks he is- and subsequently leave the show and manga to be admitted into a psychiatric facility. Yeah. Alrighty, reviews welcome- flames will be laughed at- though I admit I like reading them for some God known reason. Take care all and see you all next week!!!


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